July 20 (Bloomberg) -- A lawyer for Facebook Inc. said she
was “unsure” whether company founder Mark Zuckerberg signed a
contract that purportedly entitles a New York man to 84 percent
of the world’s biggest social-networking service.

Paul Ceglia sued Facebook and Zuckerberg in state court
June 30, claiming that an April 2003 contract entitles him to
ownership of most of the closely held company. Ceglia’s lawyer
produced a copy of the document for U.S. District Judge Richard
Arcara today at a hearing in federal court in Buffalo, New York.

“Whether he signed this piece of paper, we’re unsure at
this moment,” Facebook lawyer Lisa Simpson told Arcara.

Palo Alto, California-based Facebook, which hasn’t claimed
the alleged contract with Ceglia is a phony, has “serious
questions” about its authenticity, Simpson said.

The case is the latest challenge to the origins of
Facebook, which is worth $24.6 billion, according to
SharesPost.com, a marketplace for closely held firms. Facebook’s
paternity was questioned in a suit by a group of Zuckerberg’s
former Harvard University schoolmates, who claimed he used code
developed on their ConnectU project to start Facebook. They
settled in 2008.

Facebook Request

Today’s hearing was for Arcara to consider a request by
Facebook to dissolve a temporary injunction, issued by a state
court judge June 30, preventing the company from transferring
assets. The parties resolved the issue by agreeing to let the
injunction expire July 23. Arcara extended an order staying the
injunction until then, which means it will have no effect.

The parties, appearing before Arcara for the first time in
the case, also provided new details of their clients’ stories in
response to questions from the judge.

“Mr. Zuckerberg did have a contract with Mr. Ceglia,”
Simpson said. Zuckerberg, 26, worked for Ceglia as a computer
coder, she said.

Facebook claims Ceglia remained silent for more than six
years and his claim is probably too old to pursue. Also, Ceglia
claims his alleged contract, which refers to “The Face Book,”
was signed about nine months before Facebook was founded, the
company said in court papers.

Today in court, Ceglia’s attorney, Terrence Connors,
produced a copy of the two-page “work for hire” contract that
his client said entitles him to control of the social-networking
service.

StreetFax

Connors told the judge that Ceglia was a Web designer
trying to develop a project called “StreetFax” in the spring
of 2003. Ceglia’s plan was to put millions of photos of streets
into a database and charge insurers money to access it.

“What he needed was a coder,” Connors told the judge.

Ceglia solicited bids to do the work. The lowest bidder was
Zuckerberg, then a Harvard freshman. Zuckerberg said he would do
the job for $1,000, Connors said.

The contract was intended to cover the coding work on
StreetFax and Ceglia’s investment in Zuckerberg’s “fledgling
project,” Connors said. “Who knew then that it would turn into
what it is today?”

In response to questions outside court, Connors declined to
explain why it took Ceglia so long to file his legal claim. He
also declined to say whether Ceglia had made any demand for
money or for an ownership share from Facebook before suing.

The case is Ceglia v. Zuckerberg, 10-CV-00569, U.S.
District Court, Western District of New York (Buffalo).